Khadevis Robinson has won the 800 at the USA Championships four times outdoors (including a 1:44.37 in 2007) and three times indoors; he edged rival Nick Symmonds by one-hundredth of a second in this winter's USA Indoor Championships in Boston. That rivalry will be renewed at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene. Robinson's career best in the 800 is 1:43.68, set in 2006. He ran in the first round of the 800 at the 2004 Olympics and has been on four outdoor World Championships teams. He was the 1998 NCAA champion outdoors while at Texas Christian University. In the 2008 outdoor season, Robinson barely lost to Yusef Kamel of Bahrain at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York, 1:45.53 to 1:45.55, with Gary Reed of Canada third. At the Prefontaine Classic, Robinson was third in 1:44.55 behind 2007 World Champion Alfred Kirwa Yego of Kenya (1:44.01) and Kamel (1:44.18), with Nick Symmonds fourth in 1:45.01 and Reed fifth in 1:45.68. He grew up in Texas and was a football player until a broken wrist convinced him to try track. Robinson, who will be 32 in July, lives in Santa Monica, California, with his wife and seven-month-old son and is coached by American 800-meter record holder Johnny Gray.

You had talked about trying out some different ways of running the 800 this year. But watching the Prefontaine Classic 800, we're wondering if you may have saved it until a little bit too late. What was your thought on that?Khadevis Robinson: That's kind of one of the things that happens when you sit back, especially in a good field. When you give those guys too much room, it's hard to catch up with them. You're kind of depending on finishing well, which can happen if you're sitting off the pace, but you're also depending on those guys NOT finishing well. When you're talking about really good guys, the top 10 in the world, maybe one or two might fade. You can't bank on that.

And Alfred Yego is one of those top guys.KR: Yeah he is. His positioning was good. He's a small guy, and he can get in there and tuck in and not cut his stride length at all, and he can get out of bad situations as well. He can get out and change gears. Kamel is the same. You don't want to give him that much space, because he's going to be very difficult to catch. I knew that at that point. I didn't anticipate giving them that much room; actually, during the race, I didn't know I had. I didn't know until after I'd seen it on the TV.

The 800 seems like the most unpredictable track event in terms of what kind of race it's going to be — how fast or NOT fast it will go out, what the order's going to be, who's going to be in position at the top of the stretch, who's going to be coming from behind.KR: It's the most unpredictable and it's the most competitive also. That's the thing I think a lot of people are starting to understand. The 800 is so tough. There are so many great runners in it. You look at the top 20 in the 800, and you look at the countries they're from, and you're going to be absolutely amazed. You can't find any other events where people are really good, not just RUNNING, from Sudan and Kuwait and Qatar. You add in the Americans, the Canadians, and Australians. You're almost representing all seven continents, barring Antarctica. And most of the events are not like that. That makes it very difficult. When you get in races, everybody has a chance, but once you make that mistake, it's hard to make up for it.

You just missed making the final of the 800 at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, and that was a very strange final, a very slow one (Alfred Yego won in 1:47.09). Were you looking at that and saying "boy, I wish I could have been in that one?" It seemed like the kind of race you could have won.KR: Yeah, that's the thing. When you start talking about the semifinal, or the final, or even just a good race where you've got the top ten guys, anyone can win. Even if you ask the guys who got first, second, or third, or whatever, they'll tell you. (Yuriy) Borzakovskiy said the same thing in an interview (he was third in Osaka). Gary Reed said the same thing (Reed was second). Anybody could have won it. But it's just so difficult to get out of those semis and make it to the final. It's necessarily that the pace, because it was so slow, gave everybody a chance, because those guys still went 52, 51 on that last 400. You still can't make the small mistakes, and that means you have to have practiced that throughout the year. That way, if you're in that race and you're going that slow, you know what to do and your body responds. You have to get into those races and hopefully run your best race at that time. That's pretty much what's happening at the World Championships and the Olympics. Those guys are still fresh. They're still peaking. They're not peaked at their (national) championships because a lot of them get selected (without a Trial). They're able to get in those races and it's right on schedule, on plan. And that's the key.

You mentioned Sudan. From what we've seen both indoors, where he won the World Championships, and outdoors, where he has a 1:42.69 — the first 1:42 in the 800 in six years — Abubaker Kaki certainly looks phenomenal. What are your thoughts about him?KR: I've never seen anything like that before. It's hard to say. He was running 1:43s in November, so it's amazing he can hold that shape the rest of the year. But obviously he's figured something out. He's running extremely well. The confidence is there. Obviously, he must be a talent because he's supposed to be very young. It's amazing. It's hard to figure out how someone can develop that type of strength, and that his body can be that mature at that young age to do the workouts it would take to run 1:42. But the good thing about the 800 is whenever one person bumps up the tempo or the times, everyone else follows. You're going to have other guys running 1:42s and 1:43s. And then, you know, it's sport, and we all train hard and work hard. You just have to go in there and do the best you can do and believe you can do it. Anything can happen. You just never know. So really, you just look at that and say, "you know what, the guy (Kaki) is human, if he's doing it, I can do it also."

We've talked about how the 800 is an unpredictable event, but looking to the Olympic Trials, most people would say at this point "well, Khadevis is probably the top guy, and (Nick) Symmonds is probably a close second, and who knows what's going to happen after that?" What do you think of the field, as you look at it?KR: Every race is a new race. The main thing is I don't underestimate anyone. I never have, because I remember when I was in college and was new coming out, people underestimated me and that really gave me a lot of energy, that gave me a chance to shock some people. I don't take anything for granted. I just prepare myself through the year to be the best that I can be so that when into championships or any race, I can give it all I have. And I'm fairly confident that if I'm able to run my best on those days, at the very least I'll be competitive. I mean, I always feel I have a chance to win it if I execute my race plan and stay patient. I train extremely hard so I think if I just do those things I should be fine. But I don't really get caught up in who's predicting what. That's not where my energies go.

Did you see the NCAA final with Jacob Hernandez, Andrew Wheating, and Duane Solomon? It was close for first, and three guys were in the 1:45s.KR: I did see some of that. That was interesting. It's an Olympic year. Things always happen during an Olympic year. This year's been a very amazing year. You have the 100-meter world record, and guys are running 19.8s in the 200 and it's not even a big deal. The 400 guys are really being competitive and running 43s, and the 800 guys are running fast. In the 110 hurdles, the world record was broken. It's good, it's going to bring the level up. But again, it comes down to focusing on yourself - put the training in, stay healthy and stay fit and run the way you're supposed to run.

You're still a young guy but you've had a pretty long career now. You were an NCAA champion a decade ago. Are you finding anything about a running career easier as the years go by?KR: No, I wouldn't say it was easier. I'm still learning. You continue to figure out things. To me, the longer I've run, the stronger I've gotten. In the past, if I was out of the track for two hours, that would hammer me. But now, I'm out there again two days later and doing some workouts. I've been adapting to the workouts a little bit better. I'm able to run a little bit better on tired legs. Running all those years has helped those things and I've been a little more consistent with fast times. I've never achieved something really quickly. I've always had to put the work in and the time in. I've dedicated myself and really studied. It's never come easy. When guys come train with me, they're amazed at how much work I do and how much distance — not wasted miles, but the base I put in. I do more strength type workouts than I do speed workouts. We do hills, a little bit of everything. We almost walk; we jog in between.

We think of you as having come along in the 800 at the same time as David Krummenacker (a former World Indoor 800-meter champ) and Derrick Peterson. You've managed to hold on while those guys are fading out of the picture a little bit, aren't they?KR: What happens is it's very, very, very difficult to run well for a long extended period of time, because of injuries, because of life — like now I'm married, I have a son. What has happened for me is that my coach (Johnny Gray) ran until he was 40. He was 37 and still ran 1:43. He looks at me and says "the best years are coming up." That does help; the mindset is there that you've got some more years that are even better than the years now. This year I've done some amazing things in practice. A lot of guys come and run fast for one year or two years; they don't stay around. For me, I just found a system that works and I've kind of been in it. I work, extremely, extremely hard and try to cover all the bases.

We know you're involved in a lot of ventures away from the track. Can you talk about those?KR: I'm co-founder of the Youth Track and Running Club. We've had that for a couple of years now. That's for kids between 6 and 16. It's a nonprofit organization. We do a lot of activities. It's not competitive; it's just running and staying healthy and having fun. It's for the kids who maybe don't want to be so competitive but who like running. It's in Santa Monica and it will be in Beverly Hills. I love doing that. I'm also part of the PAA (Pacific Athletic Association). I was awarded the Doherty Fellowship at UCLA. And I also do the Ready, Set, Go program in LA. We go and talk to the kids. I like doing that. My bachelor's degree is in social work and my master's is in social administration, so that's something that I'm passionate about it and I'm fortunate that I got into track and field and that happened up doors for me.

Is you Doherty Fellowship for a specific project?KR: It's entitled "Performance-Enhancing Drugs and the Clean Athlete: Damned if You do, Damned if You Don't." What we want to do is give the general public and the reporters and all the people who don't know the inside of track and field the viewpoint of the clean athlete and how, when someone gets busted on drugs and people are cheating, it affects us also and we're just as upset as they (the public and reporters) are. There's a perception that when someone's doing drugs or is busted, other athletes don't care and just think it's normal. And we want to let them to know "no, no," it affects us. The clean athletes who are trying to do it the right way are just as upset and they want those people out of here; they want them punished. We'll interview some clean athletes who've been in the sport for awhile and get their input on why they never chose to cheat. What was their motivation for doing it right? I think that's going to be a good thing for the fans to read and see.